The Twelve Days of Christmas
by Jean-Hime
Summary: It's almost Christmas, but sadly Mamoru and Usagi have broken up. Usagi asks Santa to bring her true love, but how did Seiya end up under her tree?
1. Chapter One: My Wish List

This is Jean-Hime, but this time I wanted to try my hand at a Seiya/Usagi Christmas story. I'll continue this if anyone's interested in it, so, if you like it, review after you read.*  
  
The Twelve Days of Christmas  
  
Chapter One: My Wish List  
  
"Usagi, I can't take this anymore. For years we've been together, and we've won our battles through trust and love, but those days are over."  
  
This was how Mamoru started the conversation as Usagi stood facing her boyfriend. He turned away from her face, wanting at all costs to avoid her tearful eyes as his former 'Usako' absorbed the information. He hated telling her this, and especially a month before Christmas, but what could he do? He couldn't take any more of the empty love she had given him in the past few weeks.  
  
Usagi hung her head. "So, this is it, then? Destiny means nothing more to you now."  
  
The man before her nodded his head wearily. "Usako, since that day at the tower, I've always doubted our destiny." He took her shoulders firmly, forcing her to look into his truthful eyes. "I don't want to live like this anymore. Please Usagi, let's end it now."  
  
Usagi sighed and turned away, then faced him with a smile. "I wish you a happy life then, Mamoru." Wiping away the forming tears in her eyes, she turned away and ran through the park. She knew it was coming because even she couldn't love him the way she had two years ago. Things had changed since she started growing up.  
  
Rei thought she was hearing things. Mamoru breaking up with Usagi?! That was insane. So many things rode on their loves, including the future of Crystal Tokyo and Chibiusa. Why would something like that ever happen?  
  
Ami sighed as she listened to Usagi's account of her breakup. Makato absently twirled her straw in her milkshake while Minako lay her head in her hands. They were sitting at the Crown after a hard day of school filled with tests and for Usagi and Minako, a day of detention. They would do anything for Usagi, but they couldn't turn this decision around.  
  
"Good thing the Outer Senshi are in New York right now," Makato said, trying to be cheerful but failing miserably. "If they found out, they might bring Mamoru back in a big wooden box instead of back in one piece." She awkwardly laughed.  
  
Nothing really good came out of the conversation, and Usagi went back to her house in gloomy spirits. She wanted Mamoru back. Not for his love, but for the protection and warmth he gave her in times like these. She went into her house and into her room, shutting the door behind her.  
  
Usagi had a secret that she had never told the Inner Senshi or Mamoru in the time she had know them. As she fished around in her writing desk for a piece of paper and a pen, her mind still was thinking of her former boyfriend. He would laugh his head off if he knew that Usagi still believed in Santa Clause.  
  
She had never grown out of the jolly, fat, old guy in a red suit. Every year she wrote him a wish list, and he had never failed to deliver. Last year, Luna had almost found out and Usagi managed to succeed before her cat began to ask any prying questions. Right now, Luna was spending more time with Artemis at Minako's place.  
  
"Hmmm, what to ask for," Usagi said out loud. The only thing that came to mind was Mamoru. She sighed. 'I guess it's one thing to ask for,' she thought as she wrote absently, My true love. It turned out she couldn't think of anything else and took a quiet trip to mail the letter so her parents wouldn't find out. She really wanted Mamoru back, or someone to come her way. 


	2. Chapter Two: Jingles the Elf

Jean-Hime here! Thanks for the feedback, so I will continue writing this story to try to have it out by Christmas. *  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. Jingles is my property, only.  
  
The Twelve Days of Christmas  
  
Chapter Two: Jingles the Elf  
  
During the whole month of December, every single elf in the whole history of the North Pole knew the importance of delivering gifts. For almost 364 days out of the year, they worked hard to manufacture whatever a boy or girl wanted. They weren't old fashioned either. Each one of the seven large factories held the means to duplicate a child's gift, whether it be a Sailor Moon doll or Yu-Gi-Oh cards. But, in the whole time of gift giving, a machine could never duplicate a person!  
  
Santa Claus, the very figure of Christmas in the modern world, pondered over this newest letter he had received. This was from a sixteen year old girl, whom were quite rare on his list, and she had asked for her true love. Santa had no clue who that was. He may be smart enough to distinguish between naughty and nice children, but he wasn't a mind reader. He sighed. Things were very stressful. It all started when the second best elf in his shop started to.  
  
"Hey, Santa!," he heard a voice behind him shout, breaking any air of concentration out. The small elf, about two feet and five inches, levitated himself on to Santa's littered desk and prepared himself a seat among all the letters that had piled up from the last bag of mail. This was Jingles, the second best elf of the North Pole. But, for the last month and a half, the elf wasn't quite satisfied with his title anymore. Jingles was now aiming for the head elf position, and it was driving his employer crazy.  
  
Santa sighed, rubbing his temples. "What is it now, Jingles?"  
  
Jingles smiled, smoothing his Christmas green tunic of its newly required wrinkles. "I'm looking to please you, Santa Clause. Just say the word and I'll do it. You can count on me!" He smiled and lay back on the desk.  
  
"Here!," Santa shouted, his patience running thin as he handed the letter he was holding to Jingles. The elf became interested as he accepted the letter and read it through, frowning at the last part.  
  
"You want me to find this girl's true love?," Jingles asked uncertainly.  
  
Santa nodded and Jingles gasped. "How the heck am I supposed to do that!," Jingles burst out. He rose from the desk, making a mess of the papers as he paced through them. "That's the most stupidest request I've ever heard!"  
  
"You asked what you could do to please me, and now you know," Santa said, giving the elf a 'it's-your-fault' look. "You have till Christmas Eve to find that girl's gift, and I'm counting on you."  
  
Jingles groaned loud as he accepted his mission. "Will you give me the head elf position?," the elf asked thoughtfully, tracing the little brown beard on his face.  
  
"Sure," Santa replied, trying to keep out the fact that the only reason why Jingles was answering the letter was to pry the elf off of his nerves for a while. Jingles looked happy with Santa's answer and raced out of the room, leaving Santa with a larger mess then before.  
  
* * * *  
  
Christmas Eve  
  
Seiya was bored. Okay, he was depressed. For six straight months the youth had done nothing but wander the palace of Kinmoku like he was lost in a trance.  
  
"Seiya, stop thinking about her," Yaten said out loud at the dinner table one day, right in front of Princess Kakyuu.  
  
Seiya growled at his brother, but it didn't help the attention he was now getting from Kakyuu. This was the last person he wanted knowing about his obsession.  
  
The Princess of Kinmoku rose from the table and walked to where Seiya was sitting and placed her hands on his shoulders. "My starlight, please go to your room and get some rest," she whispered into his ear so Taiki and Yaten could not hear. He winced. His princess knew too. Nothing was sacred around here anymore.  
  
As Seiya finally found the piece to sleep, Sailor Starmaker and Sailor Starhealer stood uneasily outside his door. They had a feeling that something was going to happen and they had to be around to stop it.  
  
"I told you it was just a feeling," Healer told Maker, looking up at her tall companion.  
  
The other shrugged her shoulders and said with a smug look, "Hey, I was bored anyway."  
  
All of a sudden, there came loud sounds of banging, thumping, and rolling around coming from inside Seiya's bedroom. Their friend either sounded like he was having a bad dream or that something else was going on. Something more sinister.  
  
"Seiya!," Maker and Healer shouted at the same time as they both grabbed for the door handle and pulled. The door didn't come open in one piece, but this didn't mean anything to two Kinmokian senshi. With star yells focused on Seiya's bed, they stood there for five minutes before Healer walked over to the sheets on the floor and found neither friend nor foe. 


	3. Chapter Three: Christmas Morning

*Here's the third chapter of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Sorry about the long wait, and remember to make the season bright by spreading the warmth around. (As in, review if you liked!)  
  
*Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, just Jingles!  
  
The Twelve Days of Christmas  
  
Chapter Three: Christmas Morning  
  
Jingles stood back for a few seconds, admiring his work with a critical eye. The wrapping paper was wrinkled and the bow was frumpy, but at least the gift looked the part. This was his assignment, and he would accomplish all means of seeing that this gift 'was' appreciated.  
  
Of course the elf had been confused with his assignment, but he found his ways of finding the right gift. For example, one night he had stolen the girl's diary. Another was spent in dwelling in her simple dreams. Once or twice he had been convinced that her true love was really food, and that would have made it really easy. Unfortunately, there was a man there too, and he assumed that this was her present. So he got it for her. All nice and packaged.  
  
"Jingles, it's time to leave," Santa Clause shouted at his elf, whom was still toying with the present underneath the Tsukino tree. As the second best elf inspected his present one last time, Santa used his magical skills to slide himself up a nonexistent chimney. The elf followed after him, leaving Christmas now up to fate.  
  
* * * *  
  
Warm sunlight met her face as she opened her eyes to the light. Usagi yawned and stretched as she rose out of her blue moon and bunny speckled bed. It took her a moment to remember what day it was. She yelled in joy and raced out of the room in only her pajamas.  
  
Her parents and little brother were away at her grandma's due to the fact that her school grades were low and they thought she should better spend her vacation studying. It was boring having them gone for the holidays, but it gave her a great sense of freedom. Nobody at night limited her to the quantity of the food she ate. She could sleep whenever she wanted or be loud whenever she wanted. Maybe her parents should leave her at the house more often.  
  
As expected, presents were piled under the six foot tree in the family room. Some were from her parents, of course, while the rest had definitely come from her favorite man with a white beard dressed in a red suit. Usagi sat beside the tree and began to root through her presents. There were big ones and small ones, but the largest of them all lay beside the tree, propped up against a couch.  
  
In curiosity, she came close to it only to back away in fright. The large present was moving, or at least she thought it was. Was she still half asleep or still dreaming? No, she never was asleep on a moment like this.  
  
There it was again! She hadn't imagined it. This time, though, the present fell to the floor as if it were struggling and began to roll towards the tree. Usagi jumped out of the way and watched it move until it made a ninety degree turn and bumped into a bookcase. Then there was a cry of pain. Presents didn't feel pain. Whatever was in there was a human.  
  
Usagi tore the wrapping paper off the present in a hurry, not bothering to read the neat little card attached. It just fell to the floor and became buried by the discarded ribbons and festive paper. Finally, after lifting the cover of the box onto the floor, she looked inside and gasped in shock.  
  
"Seiya?!," she shouted confusedly as she helped the suffocating young man out of the Christmas box. Helping him onto the couch, she waited for him to regain control of his breathing. For a second she ignored the thousands of questions about to escape her lips and swallowed them. She rushed to the kitchen and brought a glass if water back and watched as Seiya gulped it all down.  
  
There followed silence as both tried to figure out exactly what had happened. Usagi used this time to absently stare at him, with his long, ebony hair and his colbat eyes. There was no mistaking how handsome he was. Usagi allowed herself to dream for just a second, then snapped out of it. Just because he was as handsome as Mamoru didn't replace the fact that he was, without an earthly clue, in her house.  
  
"Seiya, what are you doing here," she asked. Seiya turned to face her, which allowed Usagi to see the confusion in his eyes.  
  
Seiya rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, trying to remember what had happened to him. "I was back in my room in Kinmoku, when I remember being possibly jumped and then I blacked out." He shrugged his shoulders. "There was a hint of a shadow, but it was too short to be a person."  
  
For the rest of the morning, Usagi had no choice but to accept the fact that Seiya was at her house, and would be staying for as long as was needed, which had been bugging her endlessly as she opened the rest of her gifts. Seiya was a risk. If her parents or her friends ever found out, she might have dealt with answers she did not even have at the moment. Her parents would disapprove just for the fact that he was a hormone-driven guy, and her friends would disapprove because they might think she was trying to start another relationship under Mamoru's nose. It didn't matter to them whether or not the two had broken off, because they still expected their Crystal Tokyo and the adorable Chibiusa. The thought was enough for her to scrape her fork against the plate as they ate a late supper.  
  
Her concentration broke as she was woken up to Seiya's voice as he said, "Usagi, earth to Usagi." She looked up at him and noticed that he was a little worried. Rising up from the table, she left him in the dining room with only one thought on her mind. She had to get Seiya back to his planet before she could become intoxicated by him. At the moment, she did not want to even get involved in another relationship again. 


	4. Chapter Four: Can You Lose a Guy in Twel...

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Jingles. If I did, Mamoru would never exist!  
  
The Twelve Days of Christmas  
  
Chapter Four: Can You Lose a Guy in Twelve Days?  
  
The clock stroke midnight as the couple sat near the fireplace, though not in the warmth of each other as you might expect. No, Usagi and Seiya were on opposite sides of the couch, trying to forget the moment. Usagi shook her head out of her hands and sighed. "Looks like you're not going anywhere tonight."  
  
She rose from the couch, Seiya's eyes trailing her in question as she headed to the linen closet and pulled out two blankets and a pillow.  
  
"What are you doing?," Seiya asked as he also rose from the couch and followed her as she laid the blankets on the couch.  
  
"Making you a bed," Usagi grunted and instantly regretted it. This wasn't Seiya's fault for being stuck in her house and it wasn't his fault that she was bitter that night either. She turned around and faced him, saying, and "Sorry, I'm just stressed right now." She turned back to the makeshift bed hurriedly before she could see his expression. If this was Santa's idea of a Christmas present, he needed to brain surgery or something.  
  
Although, if she could get past the thought of her old boyfriend, Seiya was every single girl's dream of the perfect gift. His raven hair that was pulled into a long and thin ponytail at the nape of his neck and his dark blue eyes made him seem like a dream. Usagi dismissed the thought to stare at him and finished the bed. She stepped back to admire it. She then bid Seiya goodnight and departed to her bedroom to get some sleep.  
  
* * * *  
  
Santa frowned at the letter he received from one of his elves. At the moment, he was resting from his big night out with a mug of cocoa and a good book. The letter, however, was a surprise. Nobody for the last hundred years at least had ever regretted any present that he had delivered under his or her tree. Santa felt the beginnings of a headache as he rang for an elf, which hurriedly went off to fetch Jingles.  
  
The second best elf came as he was told, this time looking disappointed and rejected. Jingles floated silently to a chair on the opposite side of the room and looked like he was going to cry any second. "I failed," he murmured softly. "I'll never get that head elf position."  
  
Santa almost felt sorry for Jingles, but kept silent until the elf finally got a hold on his crying. "You need to officially apologize to that girl, you know," Santa said. "And, she doesn't know about our policy either."  
  
"No, she doesn't," Jingles gasped and half-jumped out of his chair in a mixture of joy and hope. "I'm off, Santa!," he shouted as he sent a large cloud of dust into the air and disappeared.  
  
* * * *  
  
"Am I not good enough?"  
  
The question rippled through her dreams as images flashed before her. Usagi and Seiya at their first meeting. A concert with Seiya singing with an unknown passion. The date at the amusement park, his question, her confusion. His kiss on her cheek. They all came flooding back as if the floodgates of her memories had been let open.  
  
Usagi woke up and stared around the room. She felt tears on her cheek and swiftly wiped them away with her hand. Seiya's visit had brought all her old feelings for him back from the surface of her heart. She placed her hand over her chest and felt the rapid beating as it pulsed. Her mind was awake and her heart was racing, so she couldn't get back to sleep. The clock read four' o' clock in the morning. She rose out of bed into the morning darkness.  
  
She took a shower and a morning walk, careful not to disturb the soft snoring of Seiya in her living room. As she set out, she thought it quite funny that she had never seen the sunrise before. She ended up back at her front door and stopped to view the dead flower garden. She must have spent more than two hours walking through Juuban neighborhood! The walk, however, had given her time to think.  
  
'I wonder how long Seiya will be staying with me," Usagi thought. "I might try to contract his princess, but that might take some work.' Usagi stopped thinking and felt a unfamiliar presence behind her. It wasn't Seiya, because the small shadow was small and slightly off the ground. She whirled around quickly to stare at an elf.  
  
Jingles smiled and bowed in front of the odango-haired girl with a small flourish, taking off the small elven cap he wore as well. "Good morning to you Usagi," he said.  
  
Usagi didn't know whether to hit the elf, scream, or run away. Elves just didn't come along the street after Christmas and pop out of bushes to surprise you. This particular elf also seemed to know her name as well.  
  
The elf watched interested as Usagi peered around, making sure that nobody else saw Jingles. The elf coughed for attention and got it. "I'm here to discuss about the little problem you had with one of Santa's presents. And also to apologize for the slight mistake as well."  
  
"Um, yeah," Usagi said, secretly wondering how Santa had figured out her little predicament.  
  
Jingles pulled out a long list out of nowhere, which was almost as long as Santa's "Naughty or Nice" list, which swept past Usagi's feet and into the bushes behind her. Using a finger to find the selected clause, Jingles read from Santa's Return Gift Policy, "If any such receiver of a gift on Christmas Day desires to exchange their gift, the receiver must keep the specific item till the last day of Christmas ends, when Santa will come and either take it back or leave it with the receiver. No other requests will be considered." Jingles rolled the list back up into its past condition and snapped it away.  
  
"So you're telling me, Mr. Elf, that I have no choice but to keep Seiya at my house until Christmas ends, and then you can take him home," Usagi asked, trying to make sense of the whole situation. "But, Christmas Day is already over. Shouldn't he be gone already?"  
  
The elf shook his head. "No. There are twelve days of Christmas, which apparently means that he'll be staying with you for almost two weeks."  
  
"Two weeks?!," Usagi almost screeched. Anything could happen in two weeks. Her parents might come home one night, where her father would shoot Seiya's head off for being in the house. There were her friends, Ami, Rei, Minako, and Makato, who would start being suspicious about the two being together.  
  
Suddenly, she heard someone open the door from the inside of the house. Seiya, dressed in the clothes he had worn last night, was about to say something when he spied Jingles floating above the front lawn. "It's you!," Seiya shouted at the small elf. "You apprehended me off my planet!"  
  
"Let me explain," Jingles said calmly. "Usagi wrote Santa Claus a request for her, as she put it, true love. We answered it as closely as possible."  
  
"With what," Seiya asked nonbelievingly. After all, Seiya hadn't even heard of Christmas before, so all the business about Santa didn't make sense to him.  
  
"With our supercomputer 2004, improved," Jingles answered, ignoring Seiya's tone. "It helps our staff come up with toys for the children of the world who do not write letters, but still believe in Santa. We also use it to order the really rare items asked for by kids off the internet." He waited a moment for added affect, then continued. "Anyway, the results for Usagi's present came up with your face, and we concluded that you were Usagi's present."  
  
"Well, if that's the best you can do, then we'll just have to accept it," Usagi said. She walked back into the house, leaving Seiya to face Jingles. Seiya followed after her, having nothing more to do with the elf.  
  
Jingles vanished until nobody human could see him. 'Time to play matchmaker,' he thought to himself, and followed the two into the house. 


End file.
